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Post by ♔ QUEEN KASSY on Apr 4, 2012 17:21:16 GMT -5
Well I’ve heard about Autism from here and there, one of my friends actually went to school to learn how to run a day care and specialized in Autism kids although I never got to go with her anywhere, she would tell me of stories from time to time. And then when I moved to the Optical Lab I’m currently at I ended up learning that one of my co-workers have Autism. I felt bad for him, because well since he didn’t have very good social skills one of our group leads didn’t like him very much. It always seemed that she was on the out to find a way to fire him, that and it apparently he didn’t always listen to directions very well. It was hard to try and talk to him, I know that one of the maintenance guys was able to finally hold a conversation with him. He’s a really hard worker though, and quite smart from what I’ve seen. But unfortunately the group lead was able to fire him because he violated a safety rule, that’s the main reason I felt bad for him was because it seemed that someone was out to get him.
And then today (yep today!) I learned that one of my co-workers grandson has Autism. She was telling me about how the school that he goes to doesn’t know how to handle kids with Autism. He’s smart, gets great grades, but constantly gets kicked out of school because he doesn’t have good social skills. She wishes that her son was able to get him to another school, but of course there’s the whole “but how will we get him there?” as they work jobs that won’t give them time to get him somewhere. I do hope though, that one day they’ll start forcing schools to implement classes for teachers and students to learn more about Autism and how to work with someone who has Autism. Well and of course those other disabilities out there as well. It doesn’t help though that our area is one of the worse schools for kids with disabilities to go to, everyone’s just so mean. I wish there was a way for them to go over to the next city that has a much better school district for them.
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Post by Sp❣rit on Apr 6, 2012 7:52:01 GMT -5
KASSY+20 SHARDS
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Post by Pokeapache on Apr 6, 2012 9:57:55 GMT -5
I have a friend of a friend who is autistic. I... I really wish I could stand her, but she drives me nuts almost consistently. I know it's not her fault, that she doesn't quite understand how much she's bothering me-- and I try very hard not to let her know that she does this, because I don't want to upset her or make it worse. It's extremely hard for me to get close to her and enjoy her company, and quite often she'll be so hard on herself that I just want to shake her out of it. It's frustrating and difficult for me to completely understand what it's like to be her, and she has a lot of health problems aside (it doesn't help that she INSISTS on being vegan).
She's a beautiful artist though. I really, truly, admire her. I wish I could be friends with her like some of my friends are/were. She has inspired me many times, and I know she has good intentions a lot of the times. I'm just so easily annoyed, and I only get more frustrated not being able to be honest with her. I know if I snapped back, because of her personality, she would take it extremely personally even though I don't mean to hurt her by explaining why I don't like what she says. Still, she is very helpful when I need help. She's shown me sites and introduced me to scholarships that I really truly need. I'm sure if I ever needed something, she'd help me out. She REALLY is a nice person. I just have no idea how to interact with her.
Also, I really don't understand her jokes. This also drives me nuts. I wish I could find and share her sense of humour, but when I don't get that she's joking until the punchline (which..even then I don't find funny..afterwards.) it's frustrating. She's just so different for me, and even though I love her on a distant level, I just know I couldn't ever... handle being there for her. It drives me nuts and makes me so upset, but I can't do anything about it.
That being said, people who work with autism and have friends who are autistic, I'm jealous... Because the one person I know who has a serious case of it, I can't even being to understand.
[It doesn't help that I sort of accidentally dropped a rock on her head. We were skipping stones and she was sitting in front of me and it slipped and I still feel awful about it.]
sorry my shared/story bit isn't really that hopeful or happy or interesting and is kind of depressing but i'm just sharing my experience v_v;;; -curls up under a rock- i'm sorry Dx
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Post by Sp❣rit on Apr 6, 2012 12:34:40 GMT -5
APPA+20 SHARDS Oh Appa, dude. It's k. I know what you mean. :< A story is a story, and that's what I'm looking for.
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Post by danta~ on Apr 7, 2012 0:37:59 GMT -5
I did not know April was Autism Awareness Month, so thank-you for informing me!
My brother was diagnosed with Autism when he was twelve. We knew he had it ever since he was six or seven, but it took those four or five years just to get him diagnosed. Once he was diagnosed, the government was supposed to give him/us funding for him, as his costs of living increased. We did not know this (because well, the government wouldn't advertise such information) until he was eighteen. He learned to speak by the time he was fourteen, and despite having a limited vocabulary and issues with spelling, I can understand him. I think I'm the only one in the family that listens when he talks. Kids at school used to torment him for his differences, but I only noticed when someone approached me, and offered to pay me to keep him away from them. I didn't take the money, of course.
He was never very social, but we all came to accept that. Autistic kids have a hard time connecting with other people, obviously, but that doesn't mean they are stupid or slow. My brother is quite smart, although his intelligence is focused around a few specific things. He isn't "book smart" or "school smart" or anything like that; but he's good with numbers and statistics, he can build absolutely anything made out of Lego - usually he only needs the instructions for the first build, but after that, he can reconstruct everything without help. We have a growing collection of completed Batman, Starwars, and Superhero Lego in the basement. Puzzles are easy for him too; it seems like anything that requires assembly is easy for him.
For a long time I hated him. This was due to his socially awkward state, though. We grew up with an alcoholic father (which I'm not afraid to talk about, haha, even though you're all strangers...) and our dad did not treat us well for a long time. This put my brother in to a state of hyper-aggression, but most of it was directed at me. He didn't know what to do with girls, he didn't know the differences between them, and he also just didn't like the way I behaved (usually my younger brother and I would compete to see who was smarter than the other, and would exclude my older brother from this. He hated seeing us having fun, and took it out on me). After some therapy, I've gotten better.
At age twenty-three, he now has a full-time job. He takes the bus to and from work, he talks to his coworkers, and seems to enjoy his time there. My parents know he will never be able to move out and live alone, but they're okay with that. They're trying to get him placed in to a group home for adults, but he's been on the waiting list for seven or eight years now, and there is little hope for that. But, as long as he's happy, I guess it's alright.
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Post by Sp❣rit on Apr 7, 2012 0:46:13 GMT -5
DANTA+20 SHARDS
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Post by G♌I♏♏ on Apr 9, 2012 13:02:36 GMT -5
We spent a great deal of time talking about Autism in my genetics class and discussing what contributes, genetically to Autism. It's unclear if Autism is explained more by rare mutations, or by rare combinations of otherwise common genes. The idea that certain agents, which cause other birth defects, cause Autism is only seen to be true in rare cases. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of individuals diagnosed with Autism since the 1980's, but only in part due to an increase in the number of individuals with Autism and more in part because of changes in diagnostic practices and a better understanding of Autism.
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Post by DR-@@GON on Apr 10, 2012 13:33:27 GMT -5
I figured everyone already got down the facts about autism, so. Picture for you.
I do have stories, though.
Until a few years ago, my view of Autism was largely negative. When I was in elementary school, there were classrooms designated for kids with Autism. All the kids, Autistic or not, were able to play at recess and lunch. The first time I came in contact with Autism was in first grade or so. During lunch, there was a trampoline set out for us to play on. Me and my friends were taking turns jumping on it when suddenly a young boy with Autism shoved us off and started jumping on it, not giving us a turn. We ignorantly demanded it back, and then he spat all over our clothes. That sent us away. Then we complained to a campus supervisor, and she merely yelled at us that we should apologize to him, that he was just an Autistic boy. I felt like they were being rewarded for their meanness, not knowing really what Autism was.
There were a few other instances, like an Autistic girl standing on top of my friend's back as she was playing on the jungle gym and hurting her and being chased around by one of my sister's friend's Autistic brother and getting reprimanded by his mother for complaining about it. But there was one nice memory of when I was hanging out with my friends - fifth grade, I think? And we were playing tag. A group of Autistic kids wanted to play with us. One of them, a young girl, was all smiles, running around and hugging all my friends. At the time I was sort of grossed out, but then she came up to me and hugged my waist without my consent. I kinda stared for a second, but then my heart melted and I hugged her back. It made me realize that they weren't all bad. From then till now, I didn't have much contact with Autistic kids. But I respect their rights to live and enjoy what life has given them.
And recently, this year, junior year, the freshmen in my art class laughed when they heard kids with Autism being wheeled outside, shrieking. But my Art teacher made them think twice when he reprimanded them, informing them that they were laughing at kids with disabilities.
Though I don't really have a solid opinion of Autism at the moment, I'm the kind of person that avoids kids like that. Might be cruel, but I just can't relate to them. It's like me and babies-toddlers. I'm terrible with young children. But hey, it's better than outright making fun of them. If my friends were railing on them, I'd defend them, too, because that's going too far.
Call me a bad person for this, too, but I'm flabbergasted at how high the rate of Autism in children is getting. I'm all for sympathy and acceptance and whatever, but we should do something about this. Is it like, a chemical in food that's causing it? Some of those funds better be going towards finding the cause of it, because I'm tired of hearing about families and people suffering from it. At least a way to communicate with them, and them to us, would increase our understanding of this. I do have faith, though, that someone out there is making this happen.
So yeah. It's not very nice, but that's just me.
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Heartsbane
POPPED CHERRY
[M:19200:0:20:]
Posts: 38
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Post by Heartsbane on Apr 10, 2012 19:06:50 GMT -5
Well... I learned that Asperger's is actually part of the Autism spectrum! But why that is important is because my boyfriend has Asperger's. Interestingly, Wikipedia said that Autism must be recognized in children three years of age or younger, but Talon (as I will call him for this purpose and isn't his real name X3) was only recently diagnosed. By "recently" I mean like... five years ago at most. Regardless, he's high-functioning. Hardly shows any signs and what little he does could easily be a result of other things and not recognizable as Asperger's. Perhaps interestingly, he is a manager at an electronics store and is a very good salesman. I have more issue with being social than he does. >.> Anyway, I wish I had more to share but... I've only moved closer to him this last year so there isn't much. Plus, like I said, he doesn't show many signs of it. ._. He actually gets a little annoyed when people use their disorders as a fall-back for acting ridiculous in one form or another. He knew someone when he was younger whose parents always tried to defend him by saying "Oh, he has Asperger's, it's not his fault." and it really annoyed Talon. They even used it as a defense for that boy to be violent and such. :/ Anyway, that's the most experience I personally have with the Autism spectrum disorders. Not the best story, but it's all I got.
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Post by Rekari on Apr 14, 2012 13:56:57 GMT -5
This is a tale of violence, those that are against violence please turn away.
My brother, father and two of my cousins have autism of varying degrees. It runs in my family pretty hard core. I've always been the one to look after my brother in school when we were both going to the same school and I was always the one that kept him out of trouble. He had a specific seat on the bus that he was always supposed to sit in a specific seat on the school bus and most days he did it without arguing or getting to upset by the fact that even though he was in a higher grade he still had to sit towards the front of the bus with the younger kids. I had stopped riding the bus for awhile because of my college classes and by the time they were finished a lot had changed on the bus. Apparently there was a girl on the bus that thought because my brother was different she could make fun of him and actually start to physically abuse him. I felt bad for not noticing what had been going on sooner when I was home. When I finally did start riding the bus again I noticed that everyone was acting funny around me, my brother and her. It went a few days without incident and everyone started to relax. Finally though she decided to start up her shit again and threw a package of crackers at my brother and screamed for him to eat it fatty. I lost my cool, as did one of the other girls on the bus who i didn't know it at the time but she had an autistic sister in the same class as my brother. We jumped out of our seat and started beating the crap out of the girl. She ended up over one of the bus seats while we took turns punching her in the face. We were even pretty close to hanging her head out the bus window when the driver finally noticed and stopped the bus. We were all removed from the bus and me and the other girl got a bus to ourselves to ride the rest of the way home. From that day on no one has touched my brother and he is graduating May fourth this year. I'm so proud of him.
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Post by Sp❣rit on Apr 14, 2012 21:09:37 GMT -5
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Post by NICKOLAI on Apr 15, 2012 13:53:20 GMT -5
What stories, honestly, this definitely opened my eyes to this disorder. Something I found saddening, was the small fraction of funding and support autism gets as opposed to other disorders and diseases.
Prevalence vs. Private Funding
- Leukemia: Affects 1 in 1,200 / Funding: $277 million
- Muscular Dystrophy: Affects 1 in 100,000 / Funding: $162 million
- Pediatric AIDS: Affects 1 in 300 / Funding: $394 million
- Juvenile Diabetes: Affects 1 in 500 / Funding: $156 million
- Autism: Affects 1 in 88 / Funding: $79 million
Total 2011 NIH budget: $30.5 billion
Of this, only $169 million goes directly to autism research. This represents 0.6% of total NIH funding.
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Post by arionne ♥ on Apr 23, 2012 13:48:27 GMT -5
So i'm really late with this, but I wanted to contribute to the april awareness month anyways. Yay for it still being april, at least!
I never really thought of autism as something that would affect me. My parents don't talk too much about it and I'm not really exposed to many situations, bar the wonders and horrors of the internet, but I know it's there and it's real, just not in-my-face, i guess. As I thought about it, it hit me that I've probably been more involved than I ever realized. When I was younger, up until high school, I knew this boy who was always a little odd. He was absolutely brilliant when he wanted to be, smarter than any of the other kids, and quite strong as well. He seemed to have a greater understanding of math and economics that kids in elementary school just don't really care about. At the time, I think we all just claimed that it was his aznmath that made him so good, because when it came to subjects where he didn't care about, it would show in his grades.
He was always different, with priorities that were hard to understand sometimes, and as we grew older (and by old, I mean lolhighschool) it became harder for him to really connect with others, regressing into his own world. When we wouldn't understand him, he would resort to self-harm, or to harming others. Eventually, he was pulled out of school and we didn't really hear from him anymore.
His world consisted of video games, and sometimes it's scary to see similarities between him and people that I wouldn't want to normally associate him. But reading and researching about autism and aspergers online, it makes it easier to maybe understand what was going on with him and why it was just so hard for him, once he was out of his comfort zone, why he just couldn't act like 'all the other kids'.
Still, it was always hard for me to think of him as 'the kid that stabbed himself in the arm with a compass' along with other quite-terrifying things he did. I hadn't been there to witness it, and the memories of him being rather sweet and caring, in his own slightly odd and quirky way. He's the one that introduced me to pokemon and to video games in general, and he was quite prevalent when I was younger. I don't think I ever wanted to see the signs, and i'm pretty good at not seeing what I don't want to see.
It's not the easiest for me to talk about this, but thinking about it on and off all month has helped a bit, so thank you, spirit <3
I didn't think that autism was anything that really affected me, and who knows if i'm right about him. Regardless, I hope everyone took the time this month to learn more about this syndrome that affects quite a large number of children.
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Post by Sp❣rit on Apr 23, 2012 14:32:32 GMT -5
Eek, I would've updated this sooner but I was waiting for more people to reply. Better to add'em in groups. Anywho! NICK/ZENO+20 SHARDS ikr? The lack of funding is sort of sad, considering just how many are affected. I'm pretty exposed to those that are low functioning with autism, and it just makes me wonder if it's ok to just leave adults like this. XD People have no idea how to connect with them, and it's a shame. ARIONNE+20 SHARDS GIRRRRL. We do have our derp promos every now and then, but this one does manage to help people by talking about it. I'm glad I was able to do something for you too. <3
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Post by Rivaxorus on Apr 25, 2012 14:15:25 GMT -5
I'm a dud who lives under a rock,so I don't know anything about autism, I did have a friend who had it though, though I moved away and the entire class liked him. But, something I didn't know about autism for me is it effects 3 to 4 more times in girls then boys. So here's my story, it isn't sad, more or less it was happy I could guess. And, it was probably the most exciting accomplish I'd ever made.
This was a few years ago in elementary school when I went to live with my dad because of me having problems with my step dad. The school's 6th graders had their own section away from everyone else, and since I connected better with younger or older kids rather then kids my own age, I was alone for a little while. Until I moved classes and that class, I had to say was the most fun class in my elementary school years. Everyone was friendly, besides of course those few stuck up populars, and we all supported this one kid name Joey, he, had autism. But, we all considered him our friend. Now Joey, he wasn't friendly, nor aggressive, he came to school on a wheelchair with a helper everyday, it was unusual for him not to come to school so when he didn't we would all ask the teacher why he wasn't at school. Joey didn't talk, in fact, he would just smile and laugh at our joke me and my two friends made. Then one day, the helper had to run an errand, so at lunch I had to watch him in the classroom. It felt a bit awkward for some time, silence was heavy, and he was avoiding contact with me. So I decided to go over and talk with him, though, the few sentences I said he didn't respond, until I cracked one of my usual jokes and he laughed. So finally when he made eye contact, I went into a world of stories, about my family, about my other family, things I'd been to, my old school I'd left. It seemed like he was listening with every intent, so when the helper came back, I was a bit sad I couldn't share anything else with Joey, but there is one thing that he said before I left that I'll never forget "Friends Forever". And that's the first thing I had ever heard him say and last since I moved before the end of the year to my old school. But, that is my story.
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Post by FOTLY on Apr 25, 2012 19:38:33 GMT -5
oh god this is so late. i just normally don't do promos OTL andthisoneisapromoishoulddoanyway --
i actually used to know a kid with autism, four years ago. he was definitely one of the best people i've ever known. his mother was really protective over him, and he, for the most part, didn't really have all that many friends that would come over and play with him. feeling a little bad for the kid one day ( and his mom was friends with mine, we were neighbors ), i went over and decided to play around with him. it was probably one of the most fun things i remember doing in that year down in kalamazoo. i would go over to that kid's house everyday and just play with him. his mom adored me and took me to a few fairs with him and back then i was short enough to go on the kiddie rides with him. then i moved away, and to be honest i was a little heartbroken when i did move away because he was one of those little kids where you could ask this really complex question and he'd give you the simplest of answers as if it were nothing. i still visit him from time to time, like on those breaks where i'm down at my grandparent's, but i try to visit him a lot. even if it's a little sporadic.
ffffff i miss him now. ;^; his name was Leo, too, and he was the sweetest thing i've ever known. fjdkgfdks he's like twelve now.
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Post by [K]azzy on Apr 27, 2012 13:47:20 GMT -5
Autism Awareness My Story: I never knew Autism and only heard of it through people and books from the library. They had mentioned it in my pre-med class and I looked for more information. The internet provides so much but, it was still difficult to understand so, I seeked more help on the thought and met a girl named Samantha with a little boy named Adam. Adam was only five but, he refused to make eye contact with anyone, walked on his toes, didn't speak and waved his hands. Samantha told me she had taken at least six months to get a doctor to tell her that Adam was autistic. He was a social boy, very happy and very sweet but, the autism prevented him from being able to do so much at that age. I almost cried, watching him and noticing that he did not run to Samantha when she called his name but, instead looked around confused. He would shake his head and sometimes, I could look into his eyes and see the face of a child that didn't understand. I couldn't imagine what it would be like and I spent a lot of time with Samantha and Adam, letting my own little three year old play with the boy and let them interact and be friends. It was a very sweet moment for me and I feel more aware for autism then before my class.
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Post by Sp❣rit on May 1, 2012 11:48:12 GMT -5
Promo is closed! Thanks for making this possible, guys! Niana+20 SHARDS FOT+20 SHARDS KAZZY+20 SHARDS
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